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SAP Adds Key Customer ID Management with Gigya Acquisition

SAP, best known for its durable enterprise apps and the HANA in-memory database, is expanding its presence in another direction: customer identity and access management.

The Walldorf, Germany-based company said Sept. 25 that it is in the process of acquiring Gigya, considered one of the world’s leading vendors in that category. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but one published report estimated the deal to be worth about $350 million.

Gigya's customer identity and access management platform enables enterprises to build effective, lasting relationships with their customers. Its platform allows companies to manage customers' profile, preference, opt-in and consent settings, with users maintaining control of their data at all times. Gigya said it currently manages 1.3 billion customer identities.

Users opt in and register via Gigya's registration-as-a-service, which handles changing geographical privacy issues and manages compliance requirements, such as the European Union’s upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect in October 2018. Its automated platform will make allowances and suggestions for the protection and location of data under the coming rules.

Further reading

Gigya already has some history with SAP. As an SAP Hybris partner since 2013, it has customers that use an access-management solution with elements from both SAP Hybris and Gigya.

With the acquisition, SAP Hybris believes it will become the first vendor to offer a cloud-based data platform enabling companies to profile and convert new customers, gather accurate conclusions from disparate consumer engagement sources and collect data for enhanced consumer choices that are in line with regulations.

"Combining the data matching and enrichment capabilities of SAP Hybris Profile with Gigya's consent-based identity data and access management platform will allow us to identify consumers across channels and offer a robust single consumer profile," Gigya CEO Patrick Salyer said.

"This is a vital step for digitalizing businesses, because companies need to be able to draw accurate conclusions seamlessly across all channels, including web, mobile, in-store or connected devices, and the internet of things, as well as collect data about consumer preferences."

Gigya has more than 300 employees and is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. The company's operations will become part of the SAP Hybris business unit for customer engagement and commerce.

The transaction is expected to close in the final quarter of 2017, subject to regulatory approval. For more information on SAP Hybris solutions, go here.